Seventeen Years
by AddiCullen
Summary: Renesmee is now 17 years old, and now Jacob is planning her best birthday ever...he has things to say to her...but will she accept them. Mostly fluff. Written for LittleNessie12's twilight contest. Yay!


**Seventeen Years**

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Nessie's 17th birthday. I had the most special day of her life planned. Well, probably not. I'm not a planner, that's usually her thing. She draws up schedules for anything, I'd say something like "Hey Nessie, wanna see a movie this weekend?" She'd plan everything. What car we'd take, where we'd stop, what we'd see, where we'd see it. So on so forth. But one day every year she reluctantly gives the planning over to me. A day full of surprises. This is mostly for my sake, Nessie hates surprising.

The day she turned seventeen I drove to the Cullen's house at 7 a.m sharp. Nessie was waiting for me. She was sitting on the front porch step, her head leaning against the white post, her eyes closed. I chuckled to myself, she was never a morning person.  
When she heard my car she opened her brown eyes slowly, I waved enthusisatically. She rolled her eyes as she stood. Shaking out her ruffled jean skirt. She had her reddish brown curls pulled back in a high ponytail so the curls tumbled down her back. She wore a red tank top with a brown knit shrug pulled over it. Her black cowboy boots tapped against the gravel as she jogged to the car. She threw her black slingbag into the backseat and turned to look at me sternly.  
"Jake, why do you make me get up so early on my birthday?" She whined playfully. "Tradition." I replied simply, "For seventeen year I've dragged your sleepy butt out of the house to drive down the road to watch the sunrise from the car."  
She mumbled something unintelligible.  
"Come on." I teased, "You know you love it." Nessie smiled at me and reached her hand over to lay her palm on my shoulder. _I do_ she told me silently.

A few hours later we were sitting outside our favorite soda stand, each with a glass bottle of Cream Soda. Nessie chewed on her straw distractedly. "What's up, Nessie?" I asked. She wrinkled her cute little nose at me.  
"I was thinking you shouldn't call me Nessie." She said thoughtfully. I laughed, putting my arm around her. She'd been fighting this one for years, "Really Jake." She said spinning out of arms reach. "I know. But Nessie, we've been there before." I said, locking eyes with her, hoping she'd come back to sit at my side. My arm felt empty without her, she crossed her arms.  
"Tradition." She teased me. That was true. We went through this every couple of years. Always on her birthday, always sitting at this soda stand. When she was 10 she tried going by Renee. When she was 14 she wouldn't respond to anything other than Renesmee. I always called her what she wanted, but Nessie was the only name that stuck.  
In a flash I was on my feet, I grabbed her around the waste and pulled her toward me. "Nessie Nessie Nessie Nessie." I repeated, ignoring her attempts to pull away.  
"Jake!" She begged lightly. I let her go reluctantly, she didn't notice me watching her sadly as she returned to her Cream Soda. Nessie and me weren't really at the romantic part of our relationship yet. Well...at least not for her. We'd always been close, always very best friends. But over the last year or two I thought that was kinda...stronger.  
...For me, anway. Nessie never really seemed to think about me much...or in that way, really. She always brushed off the explanations of imprinting, underestimating. Maybe she just didn't feel that way. Or maybe not. Nessie always liked to keep me guessing.  
But today, I was determined to find out one way or another.

"Where are we going?" Nessie asked curiously, as I turned off our regular birthday route. "It's a surprise." "I don't like surprises." She pouted, sticking out her bottom lip.  
"I know." I smiled warmly at her. For a moment it looked like she was trying to resist, then she gave up and smiled. I sighed.  
God, I loved that smile.

I helped Nessie out of the car before covering her eyes, though it was nearly pitch black by now. "I can cover my own eyes, Jake." She said scornfully.  
"No thanks."  
"You don't trust me?"  
"Actually, no." That made her giggle. We were in the middle of a light forest by now. I walked her to the side of a small pond and sat her on a large boulder. She plopped down oddly. "Can I open my eyes now?" She asked.  
"No." She stuck out her bottom lip. Nessie reached her thin hands forward blindly until she could set her palms on my arm.  
_Tell me._ She begged silently.

"That's no fun." I said playfully, then knelt down in front of her, taking her hands. "Now Nessie." I said seriously, she straightened at my tone. "Nessie, I need you to know that I have something special planned. But if you open your eyes, it'll be ruined. And you have to take it seriously, or it'll be ruined."  
She sent me a mental image of the trees she saw before I covered her eyes, she was confused. I leaned closer to her, our faces were only inches apart when I spoke again.  
"Can you do that for me?" I whispered. Nessie froze, obviously not expecting that I'd move in so much. Had to admit I was a little dazed myself. She smelled so good from right here. I saw her eyelids twitch for a moment. Knowing her I guessed she wanted to open her eyes, she didn't like mysteries, she'd want to see where I was, why I could feel her warmth on my face, why I could see the shadows her perfect eyelashes cast on her high cheekbones, why I couldn't pull myself away. Or maybe that's what I wanted to know. "Answer me Nessie." I said. She seemed frozen in place.  
_Where are you?_ She asked silently, she sensed how close I was. Her breathing slowed the smallest amount. Her mind lulled, and I saw everything. She knew I was close, she was, she leaned a little bit closer. I might not have noticed if her mind was unconsciously draining her thoughts into my head. Abruptly, I pulled my hands out of hers and stumbled back several paces. Nessie flinched, and for a moment I thought she'd open her eyes and ruin the surprise. But they only twitched, they remained closed. For a moment her hands were frozen around air, as though they hadn't yet realized they were no longer holding onto me. "I will." She whispered finally, her voice emotionless, "I won't open my eyes." I sighed. Leaving her there I walked to the other side of the pond and bent down, pulling dead leaves away from a tree stump. I'd gotten there the day before and stashed some things there. Seventeen little wooden boats, Seventeen Candles, one lighter. Carefully, I lit the candles and set them on the wooden boats. I set them all into the pond, letting them light the black water. They floated and scattered, each it's own little lantern in a world of darkness. I went back to where Nessie sat patiently. I stood behind her and put my hands over her eyes. "Are you ready?" I asked her quietly. She nodded, her breath speeding up again, I heard her heart start to pound. I removed my hands.  
"Oh. My. God." Nessie whispered incredulously. She stood slowly, her hands clasped at her chest. She took a few steps forward in slow motion while I watched her apprehensively.  
Her back was to me though, I couldn't see her face and she didn't move a muscle. She didn't even seem to be breathing. "How beautiful." She murmured, "The little points of light in the darkness. The candles floating around with the lily pads and flowers, reflecting in the water. All those candles...seventeen...seventeen candles."  
Finally she turned to me, her eyes sparkling. Shining with tears and pinpoints of light. "Jake." She said softly, taking a step toward me, hands still clasped at her chest. "This is wonderful it's so...perfect." She sighed, eyes closing. She stood there peacefully for nearly a minute. Until I couldn't take it anymore. There we were, standing in almost total darkness, both choked up. Her precious eyes were closed, the moving lights in the background casting an angelic glow around her outline. And she was only a few feet away from me. And suddenly that was too far. It took me less than a second to cover the distance and take her in my arms. Nessie's head snapped up to look at me, slightly shocked, but she didn't pull away.  
"It's not what I asked for on my birthday wishlist." She whispered with a shaky smile, "You know how particular I am about my birthday presents."  
"And?" I inquired.  
"And what?" "Will I do?" For a moment I was afraid she wouldn't answer. But then she pulled herself closer to me, nuzzling her face into my chest.  
"Always, Jake." She said, her voice slightly muffled. "I don't think I could ever want anything else." I made her look up at me, seeing happy tear tracks on her face.  
"So that means you'll stop sending me those wishlist every year?"  
"Let's not get carried away." She said with a smile, standing on her tip-toes to press her warms lips to mine. I panicked for a second, mostly because my heart stopped immeasurably. Only feeling Nessie's heartbeat against my chest made it start again. She pulled away. "On second thought..." She said slyly, "Let's...I wouldn't mind." She brought her lips back.

Happy Birthday Nessie.

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**Made this for LittleNessie12's contest. Filed under Romance...hopefully. I struggle with the romantic imagery....working on it. Still review it, still love it everyone!**


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